[Hidden-tech] Siteground does serious screwup of web sites

Tue Jan 19 22:59:42 UTC 2021

Hi All,

For well over 15 years I've repeatedly warned clients that all web host for small and medium-sized business (sub ~$30/mo) go bad sooner or later, often by a sell-out. Web hosting is wrongly perceived as a commodity, so web hosts compete rabidly on price, eventually requiring either cutting quality to remain solvent, or selling out to a company that thinks they can ring profit from the bought host. In my 25 years, damage to the web hosts' clients always resulted from the cruel economies of web hosting.

In my experience, the host with by far the longest stretch being good was FutureHosting.com (FH), about ~10 years. A few months ago they suddenly forced all clients to migrate to Nexcess.net, claiming quality improvement, but it was a sell-out with costly consequences for all its clients. With almost no warning, we had to spend time and client budget to ensure that all kinds of functionality worked, and run the standard SEO tests to be sure that all SEO value and performance was migrated. The latter work is a crucial part of migrating to a new web host; a substantial percent of the work by search marketing firms like mine is ensuring that such migrations cause no losses. A couple of the clients' websites got hacked separately from the huge September web-wide hack that afflicted hundreds of thousands of WordPress sites. Then, a couple of weeks ago, we learned that the entire Nexcess web host got hacked, which we discovered when sleuthing down-time for some of our clients.

I asked a great lawyer I've long known about legal action, and he felt that the provable financial losses and the complexity of proof made legal action unlikely to succeed. However, I've often wondered how class action suits proceed. If hundreds or thousands of websites are impacted, the accumulated losses may be worth the effort by a great class action law firm.

Once my firm (DISC<https://www.2disc.com>) completes migrating our own website from Nexcess (last in line), I plan to at least post negative reviews in a few top sites. I just feel that such feedback is a civic obligation, even though I don't have time for it now. Likewise, I feel a civic obligation to leave good reviews, as when the local AAA did a great job of redressing a big mistake in a towing delay.

DISC<https://www.2disc.com/> has long worked with a small local tech group with great chops (Computer Science degrees, experience), and they have put together web hosting packages to which my firm is moving our clients. This Nubbernaut Studios is currently upgrading their website, but meanwhile their brief overview may interest some here: https://nubbernaut.com/website-services. While I can’t guarantee their performance, NU is the best option DISC has found. (Though DISC offers finder’s fees, we never accept them or any kickbacks from people or firms we recommend, as that would impugn our objectivity--we just want our clients to prosper and benefit from the search marketing work we do.)

Below is a copy of a relevant part of an email I sent to this list on 12/21:

Below is my original advisory from ~3 years ago, followed by an excellent, recent 7-minute video by my firm's CEO Jack Fox and Nubbernaut Studios, explaining the "7 layers" problem and solutions to one of our clients:

The 7 Layers of a Website

To understand why dedicated monthly website-tech management is vital, it helps to glimpse the connected layers beneath content managers’ typical interactions with a website. I’ll use WordPress (WP) as an example, but this synopsis applies variously to all website platforms.

  1.  The top layer is where you add content.

  2.  Beneath that is a layer of plugins or other third-party apps and connections. This and the above layer often break when crucial WP upgrades are rolled out a few times per year.

  3.  Lower still is the database holding not only visible content in pages and posts, but also user profiles and passwords, client or customer logins, and variously secure connections to layers above and below.

  4.  Supporting the above layers and connecting to the server foundation is a tech management layer often called cPanel. It is open source and often upgraded automatically, and such upgrades can damage other layers and break automatic back-up systems. This layer often has entrances left over from past webmasters’ work, via the likes of FTP. It also offers admin panels for most aspects of email management, domain name associations, and other vital functions of your website.

  5.  Some web hosts offer access to yet a deeper layer, often called WHM (Web Host Management). My recent spelunking there shows a byzantine array of settings often pre-set and sometimes changed willy-nilly by cheap hosting plans at the likes of GoDaddy. Options in this setup, like caching and CDN services, can have major impact on security, SEO, site speed, and other functions.

  6.  Finally, there’s the server itself, which is set-up by web hosts (or clients’ in-house IT people). I’ve never been inside there, and just peering over the misty edge into that abyss is terrifying.

  7.  Another layer that wraps around all of the above is the human layer. People working in and on the site often unwittingly do damage, and, given the compounding complexity of websites, even excellent tech pros can make mistakes that impair function and SEO performance.

Those layers change over time, and sometimes, like tectonic plates, they can rupture, causing lots of screaming and running for help. One among many consequences is declining site speed, and Google is constantly making speed more of a ranking factor, never mind the vital role of speed in conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Video: Jack and Kevin September Hack and Site Security Packages for THS<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quwp7J8PqAo&feature=youtu.be>.

Take Care,

Rob Laporte

Chief Business Development Officer | Founder | Chairman

DISC - Making Websites Make Money

413-584-6500

rob at 2disc.com<mailto:rob at 2disc.com> | LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/2disc/> | 2DISC.com<https://www.2disc.com>

NOTE: Emails can be blocked by spam filters throughout the web. If you don’t get a reply within an expected span of time, please call.

________________________________
From: Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net> on behalf of Rich at tnr via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2021 9:43 PM
To: Shel Horowitz <shel at principledprofit.com>
Cc: HT-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Siteground does serious screwup of web sites

If any of these were my older serious business sites I'd have move on that.
Although a few are major research projects like Shakerpedia
As is it, I don't think I'm up for the effort or cost of legal battle

That said, I do think they totally violated best practices -- all our AWS, google or other services give 3-6 months warning on such structural changes.
And I do plan on telling them that.

Clearly time to move past SG.

Thanks - Stay well all - Rich

On 1/18/2021 9:31 PM, Shel Horowitz wrote:
You'll need to find a lawyer who is well-versed in this particular area. I think you have a claim--but that's personal opinion--I am not qualified to give legal advice. Many lawyers will give you a free initial consult, though--and if they smell a large settlement, working on spec for a (hefty) percentage of the settlement is pretty common.

Good luck.

I had one site hosted with Siteground for one year. I wasn't unhappy until they tripled the price for the second year and I left. I have all my sites with Hostgator now.

Shel Horowitz - "The Transformpreneur"
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mailto:shel at greenandprofitable.com<mailto:shel at greenandprofitable.com> 413-586-2388
Award-winning, best-selling author of 10 books.
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On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 4:10 PM Rich at tnr via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net<mailto:hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net>> wrote:
Just checking anyone else has been totally screwed up by siteground changes
(and yes, I'm being very polite in my use of words)

They changed their goGreek hosting so each web site is it's own unix user id
and blocking any shared logic between sites.
Which would make no difference for simple sites,however
I have some 50 sites on hosting with them and a number of busy ones use
common logic.
now broken at some unknown level -- it will be hours of unwinding.

Of course they did this without prior warning.
Usually a change like this is down after months of warning.
I am on the verge of calling a lawyer -- working to determine the damage
first.

Very likely looking for alternative hosting.
Before retiring this would have all been done on AWS instances,
however since most of volunteer work I couldn't justify the expense.

Suggestions of hosting or how to handle common logic across domains.

Stay well - Rich

--
Rich Roth
CEO TnR Global

Bio and personal blog: http://rizbang.com
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Rich Roth
CEO TnR Global

Bio and personal blog: http://rizbang.com
Building the really big sites:      http://www.tnrglobal.com
Small/Soho business in the PV:        http://www.hidden-tech.net
Places to meet for business:        http://www.meetmewhere.com
And for Arts and relaxation:
http://TarotMuertos.com - Artistic Tarot Deck
   http://www.welovemuseums.com
   http://www.artonmytv.com/
Helping move the world:             http://www.earththrives.com
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